Miami university students also heard about FleetBroadband from media crew members of yachts competing in the Volvo Ocean Race
Inmarsat vice-president of external affairs, Chris McLaughlin, and CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race Knut Frostad, began with an explanation of how important FleetBroadband is for the competing boats and the Media Crew Members (MCMs).
MCM's Andres Soriana of Team Sanya, Hamish Hooper of Camper and Yann Riou from Team Groupama - together with MCM manager Rick Deppe - gave the media students invaluable insights into how they cover events onboard.
Yann Riou said a successful MCM must be editor, producer, journalist, photographer and diplomat to get their stories off each boat. Hamish Hooper added that building trust with the professional sailors onboard was essential to a successful delivery for all sponsors.
"Today its half a megabit from Inmarsat FleetBroadband and it has changed our sport." Each MCM told the challenge of editing daily TV, radio and editorial packages and delivering Live-X TV links in conditions varying from a humid "sweat box" to being inside a "crashing drum" as Southern Ocean waves towered at 35 feet and winds topped 53mph.
MCMs said the Southern Ocean had often been too dangerous to go on deck to film with hand-held cameras so their skippers had instructed them to use the five fixed cameras to record life at the extreme.
The lecture was hosted by the university's Dr Michelle Seelig, Associate Professor, and her team.
